1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The fields of art to which this invention pertains are grain storage, grain handling and conveying.
2. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
While flat floored grain storage structures are economical to construct, one-third of their volume remaining after free flow discharge is not amenable to economical emptying; "cataracting" and surges of materials jam usual conveying means and are dangerous to manual laborers attempting to unload such remaining portion of the grain mass; clam shell and bulldozer unloading requires removal of the aeration ducts that are essential to best grain storage practices. Also, "turning" of some portions of the grain in large cylindrical bins requires moving other large portions of the mass not requiring such attention, while the apparatus according to this invention permits moving selectively those portions of the grain mass disposed over large longitudinally and horizontally extending areas.
Series combinations of multiple series connected sectionalized pivotally connected conveyors deposit the output of each section thereof at points spaced away from the input to next section of the series so that the next one of the conveyors in such series does not continuously receive all of the output of the preceding section and the combination provides surges of output at the output end of the combination. Also, the power requirement of the different sections vary at any one moment of the operation of such type of apparatus so that, in gross, substantially more power is required by such apparatus than in this invention. Further still, the attention of several operators is required to be applied to several different conveyors and the different conditions of each of their operations and manipulation of such combinations, even for inefficient results obtained therefrom, is difficult.